What can Craig David do for tuberculosis?

Early on in this blog, I wrote a sceptical piece about the visit of Carl Bruni Sarkozy to Benin as an ambassador for the Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and Malaria. Much as I respect the Fund, I admit I was not overly impressed with the French First Lady's briefest of visits and questioned the usefulness of such celebrity endorsements.

But everybody does it. Today, on World TB Day, the Stop TB Partnership of the World Health Organisation announces it has secured its own showbiz ambassador, in the shape of the British singer-songwriter Craig David. In a guest blog, the Partnership's Judith Mandelbaum-Schmid explains the attractions, to global health organisations, of celebrity.

Over to Judith:

He's a young, successful pop star with millions of fans all over the world. He's a highly trained and graceful amateur athlete. He loves to talk to people and puts women, children and men of all ages and walks of life at ease. And he is deeply concerned about the world's state of health, in particular, about the tuberculosis (TB) pandemic.

Okay. I appear starry-eyed.

So perhaps I will seem less than credible when I say Craig David has all the qualities needed to make a great goodwill ambassador. On a recent visit to South Africa to find out more about TB he revealed them all: Intelligence. Deep curiosity. Openness to new people and ideas. Empathy.

The trip was arranged as a fact-finding mission in preparation for his appointment as Goodwill Ambassador against Tuberculosis for the Stop TB Partnership. This was not a quick stopover to shake hands with high-level dignitaries as a photo opp.

Craig's purpose was to visit communities hit hard by TB, including schools, and see a research centre. He wanted to meet people on the front lines - people who have beaten the disease, children and teens who face the threat of TB every day and scientists who have dedicated their lives to making TB history.

His first stop was at Stellenbosch University Faculty of Health Sciences, where he visited with the staff of the South African TB Vaccine Initiative. He toured the research group's high-tech lab facilities and met with Dr Sizulu Moyo, a young researcher who is involved in vaccine research.

"I was stunned to learn today that there hasn't been a new drug to fight TB for 40 years, and that we still don't have a quick test to diagnose TB, so that people can find out right away if they have the disease. And there still is no effective vaccine!" he said.

But Dr Moyo reassured him there is hope. "I think the prospects are good. There are a lot of players that have come in, and there's a lot of support from organizations such as WHO. That creates a good environment," she told him.

Craig kicked off his second day in Cape Town with football practice at Heideveld Senior Secondary School with a group of student players against the dramatic backdrop of Table Mountain. The school, although located in one of Cape Town's poorer neighbourhoods, has no shortage of school spirit and young talent. An auditorium packed with the entire student body, more than 1200-strong, greeted Craig with whoops and cheers as the school band and choir performed their school anthem.

Energized by their enthusiasm, Craig accepted the mike. The crowd hushed as he talked to the assembled teens about his pride in Cape Town's efforts -- in research, in education and in getting treatment to all those who need it. But the room went wild again when Craig got the band playing to his beat. Nobody was falling a-sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep during this assembly as Craig sang his hit song "Insomnia."

Craig also visited a younger crowd of preteen kids at the Pinedene Elementary School, among them a 13-year-old named Hermanique. I can't say for sure that it was Craig's visit, but something about the atmosphere prompted her to stand up and say publicly to a room full of her schoolmates, "I had tuberculosis."

Later he told her how much he admired her courage and asked if her classmates aready knew about it.

"I didn't want to tell them because I was ashamed….but they found out. Every day they mocked me in the playground.," she told him.

With her parents' support, Hermanique began speaking openly with the other kids about her tuberculosis, even though it was difficult. And the more she talked openly about it, the less she felt afraid and stigmatized. She came away with a lesson she wanted to communicate to young people everywhere:

"You shouldn't feel ashamed if you get tuberculosis."

"Through Hermanique's story, I learned that beyond treating the millions of people who get sick from tuberculosis, there is a far greater barrier we must break if we want to conquer it. It's a barrier of silence and shame," Craig says.

Craig has made a pledge to do all he can to break this barrier down. "I believe in the transformative power of music, its ability to move people to a new level of understanding and inspire them to think and act in new ways. I hope that people who feel inspired by my music will also feel moved by what I have to say about TB--that they should not fear TB, because it is a curable illness.."

I'm definitely starry-eyed.

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.